How Much Is That Friend In The Window?
by Ravyn Knyght
Summary: Yet another fic using Angel Raye's characters. Gloria can't get into trouble fighting for Annika so she hires a hit man. R & R


Disclaimer :  
  
Ravyn: "I don't own Sailor Moon. I acknowledge the fact that the Chibi Scouts, except for Rini, are the sole creation and property of Angel Raye who is gracious enough to let me use them."  
  
Angel Raye: (Pulls gun away from Ravyn's head) "Good boy."  
  
Genre -- Humour Rating -- G  
  
How Much Is That Friend In The Window? -- by Ravyn Knyght  
  
Another after school soccer game and Annika was glued to it watching Konyo. After the game and a long talk with him, Annika went home by herself. Seeing that she was alone Miyaki decided to have some fun. "I thought I told you to stay away from my boyfriend, Hino!", the voice made Annika cringe. She was alone, she wished Gloria or Faith or Daisy was here right now but they weren't. Annika tried to walk away but Miyaki grabbed her by her bookbag and hauled her to the ground. Tears came flooding down Annika's cheeks, "Leave me alone!" she stammered trying to get back up but Miyaki was holding her down. "Let me go!" she cried, but all Miyaki did was laugh. "Scream and cry all you want crybaby. I'm not letting go until you say you'll stay away from Konyo!" she said sneering at her victim. "No I won't! He's my friend and I'll see him whenever I want!" Annika choked out. This angered Miyaki. "What did you say!?" she yelled raising her fist to punch Annika.  
  
Before Miyaki could bring her fist down onto a terrified Annika, someone grabbed her arm from behind and pulled her off of Annika. "Leave her alone. Now!" a young boy demanded. Through her tear filled eyes Annika was surprised to see that Lance, Gloria's tormentor, was the one who saved her from a pounding. "Stay out of it!" Miyaki roared as she tried to free herself, but Lance held her tight and dragged her to the ground. Miyaki was now pinned to the ground crying to be let up. "Leave her alone or you'll regret it." Lance told her. He let her up and Miyaki took off running vowing to get even.  
  
"Thank you!" she said gratefully to the boy who saved her from a beating she'd never forget. "Are you all right?" he asked her and she nodded as she wiped a few tears away. "Why did you help me?" she asked as he helped her up, he just shrugged. "I dunno. Just wanted too that's all." he replied. "You gonna be all right?" he asked looking around to see if Miyaki was hanging around. "I think so." Annika said and Lance left. 'Why did he do that?' she wondered on her way home.  
  
"What's up with that?" Konyo, who saw what happened and was on his way over, asked Lance. "What's it to you?" Lance shot back. "I just found it strange you would help her that's all." Konyo said. "I thought you'd be joining Miyaki in picking on someone like Annika." he added. "I only pick on those who fight back. Annika's no fun that way." Lance told him then left. 'So even someone like Lance has their limits.' Konyo thought to himself then ran off to catch up with Annika.  
  
"I don't believe it!" Raye said when Annika told her what had happened. Raye knew what that Lance Valentine was like. She was beyond understanding why he'd do something like that. Afterall, Annika was Gloria's friend and Raye thought Lance would surely go after her to get to Gloria. But strangely enough, Lance never bothered Annika. "Well I guess there's a first time for everything." Raye muttered as Annika snuggled in closer to her mother.  
  
"I don't belieave it!" Gloria growled, "Just wait until I get my hands on her..." but Mina stopped her daughter in mid sentence. "And how do you intend to do that? You're grounded the entire month, remember?" she reminded her daughter, Gloria muttered something under her breath and got a hard swat from her mother resulting in a yell from Gloria. "If you've got something to say then say it loud enough for people to hear!" she warned her daughter. Annika and Gloria quickly left for her room to do their homework together. 'How did I end up with a child like Raye?' Mina wondered to herself.  
  
The next day Annika and Gloria were walking home from school and they stopped at a window of a toy store. In the window was a sign that advertised a new video game system that was all the rage. Gloria let out a heavy sigh as she wondered how she'll ever afford the new system. "If it was Christmas, mom and dad would buy it for me." Gloria said aloud, but her mother told her that if she wanted it she'd have to save her money and buy it on her own. "You could always get a job." Rini joked coming up behind them. "Me? Manual labour? As if!" Gloria said then turned her gaze back to the window. "You've been saving forever! You must have enough by now." Annika exclaimed thinking about how Gloria had recently tightened her spending habits. "No. I blew all the money I saved on something else." Gloria sadly informed her friend. "All of it!" Annika said in astonishment and Gloria nodded. "Well I hope what ever you wasted it on was worth it." Rini told her and moved the two girls along. A bright smile came to her face as she thought about her purchase, "Oh it is! It's worth more than all the money in the world!" she exclaimed as they walked along. Rini and Annika wondered what it was that Gloria had bought.  
  
The next day, Miyaki was at it again. She had cornered Annika in the bathroom and was about to push her head into the toilet when a teacher came in to find out what the screaming was about. After school Miyaki was in a foul mood because she was given an in school suspension and a phone call to her mother about her behavior. 'If crybaby thinks what I was going to do to her in the bathroom was bad, she ain't seen nothin' yet!' Miyaki snickered to herself as she got an idea. She came across Annika talking to Konyo. 'You're going to be soo embarassed that you'll never show your face at school again!' she thought as she ran towards them and as she ran past, she pulled Annika's skirt down revealing Annika's teddy bear underwear. "Check out the crybaby's diapers!" Miyaki yelled as she ran off laughing. Konyo quickly looked away as he handed her his jacket to cover herself.  
  
Annika was beside herself with humiliation as the other children turned and laughed at her. Unable to catch up with and find Miyaki, Gloria helped Annika pull her skirt up and take her home. Annika cried all the way home. Miyaki watched from behind a tree laughing hard. Just then she was spun around and shoved up against the tree hard by Lance. "I warned you to leave her alone! Now you're gonna wish you were never born!" Lance yelled and did the same thing to Miyaki. Except he pulled her skirt off completely and tossed it up into the tree branches. Everyone who saw this burst out laughing. "Have a nice walk home, skank!" Lance said as he ran off. One of the ones doubled up with laughter was Faith. Miyaki was beside herself with rage as angry tears rolled down her face. She didn't like being embarassed like this and someone was going to pay for it.  
  
"She's going too far with this!" Raye roared as she left to confront Miyaki's mother, Chad went with her to keep her from killing anyone. Amy tried to calm Annika down but was unsuccessful in her attempts. Faith came home and collapsed on the couch weak with laughter. "What's so funny?" Haruka asked and Faith explained between giggles at what Miyaki did to Annika. "I don't think that's funny at all!" Michiru told her in a stern voice but Faith wasn't finished with her story. "It's about time that little brat got some of hers back!" Hope said as Faith told the other girls what happened after Annika had left. Gloria was especially happy with what Lance did to her. She'd tell Annika later when she calmed down. "But why is Lance sticking up for her?" Daisy wondered. That same warm smile came to Gloria's face as she thought about her purchase.  
  
"I don't wanna go!" Annika whined as Raye dragged her daughter to the front gate to meet the other children. "I'm sick!" she tried to make an excuse to stay home. "No you are not." her mother told her, "You are going to school today and that is that!" she added. "But the other kids will laugh at me!" she started crying. Raye knelt down and hugged her tight. "They'll forget about it. If they say anything about it just ignore them." she told her daughter. 'I sound like a broken record.' Raye thought as Gloria took Annika's hand and lead her away. "Don't worry! If Miyaki does anything she'll be in for it." Gloria reassured her friend.  
  
Several days later it was school photo day and everyone was taking extra care during recess not to get their clothes dirty. Even Faith refrained from rough housing with the boys which struck her sister as strange. Elsewhere Miyaki was preparing her revenge against Annika. She had a water gun filled with red ink and headed towards her intended victims. Annika was sitting quietly talking with Gloria about Konyo's performance in yesterday's game. All of a sudden the two were showered with red ink. Their clothes were ruined. Annika started crying and Gloria was set to kill Miyaki. "You hit me and you'll be suspended!" Miyaki sniped as she took aim at the red head. "HEY!" a voice shouted from behind and Miyaki spun around to see Lance. Miyaki quickly squeezed a few shots off at Lance then ran off laughing. Lance looked over at Annika who was crying and Gloria who was trying to comfort her. He looked down at himself and clenched his fists in anger. "Now I'm mad!" he muttered and walked off to plot his counter strike. Annika didn't notice the smile on Gloria's face when she saw how mad Lance was.  
  
Because of Miyaki's stunt, her mother had to pay for Annika's, Gloria's and Lance's school uniforms to be cleaned. The photographer understood the situation and came back the next day to take the three children's pictures. The photographer left his computer unattended for a few minutes and while he was gone someone altered one of the photo files. Several days later, the school photos were sent back and to post in the class the photographer made a poster board with all the children on it in each class. Everyone gathered around to see the unveiling of the poster. Gloria, Annika, Hope and Ariel were pleased at how they looked. As they looked at the other pictures the children started laughing. Miyaki, who had pushed her way to the front, stood red-faced as she glared at her picture. Her face was severely deformed and written across her blouse was the caption "100% Skank." Miyaki ran out of the room crying as all of the children laughed at her. Gloria once again had that same warm smile on her face as she looked at her friend.  
  
Once again Gloria and Annika were standing outside the toy store window as Gloria fantasied about that new game system. Gloria sighed longingly at the display wishing she could afford it, but what she spent her money on previously was worth more than any old video game system any day of the week and twice on Tuesday. "Gloria." Annika started, "What did you spend all that money on?" she asked wanting to know what was so important to warrant such a splurge. Before Gloria could answer, Lance walked up to her and handed her an envelope. "Here." he said. "My parents found out and now I'm grounded until cats can talk." he said and walked away. Gloria opened up the envelope, and both she and Annika gasped at its contents. Just then Annika realized what Gloria had spent her money on. Her. Because Gloria couldn't get into anymore trouble, she paid Lance to do something to Miyaki every time Miyaki did something to Annika.  
  
Annika shed tears of joy as she hugged her friend. "You spent all that money on me?". She couldn't believe that Gloria would give up so much for her. "Well I figured I'd have more fun with you than a stupid video game." Gloria said hugging her best friend back. Gloria held up the stuffed envelope, "Let's see what this can buy us!" Gloria happily said as she and Annika went on a shopping spree. For all of Gloria's faults, Annika wouldn't have anyone else in the world for a best friend. 


End file.
